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Solution focused brief therapy (SFBT) is a positive client-empowering technique. Andrew Callcott describes ways of practising SFBT when colleagues may not yet understand its power to help clients.
Abstract
Since the late 1980s, many thousands of mental health nurses have had training in or an introduction to 'solution focused brief therapy" skills. Many find their initial enthusiasm wanes in the presence of teams where traditional 'problem-focused' discourses are dominant. A common response is to sideline the new skills rather than practise and embed them. This paper uncovers ways of remaining solution focused despite being in the minority, and finds ways of integrating the skills and rationale of this approach in the daily routine of handover, case discussion, clinical recording, triage and communicating with referrers.
Key words
Solution focused brief therapy, SFBT, client, teamwork, skills
Introduction
In the UK over the past two decades, 'solution focused brief therapy' (SFBT) has developed from a fairly obscure slant on traditional family therapy spreading from Milwaukee (Michigan, US) (de Shazer 1985; 1988) to a well recognised approach, which permeates health, education and social care. UK pioneers Brief (formerly Brief Therapy Practice) have trained tens of thousands of mental health workers, and there are courses from one-day introductions to Masters degrees in SFBT.
SFBT is an approach that focuses on clients' resourcefulness, strengths and the smallest signs of progress. SFBT practitioners are likely to be more interested in 'what's right' with the client and their descriptions of a preferred future, rather than what the problems are, and how the problems developed and are maintained.
I am not alone in having embraced the values of SFBT and the associated skills, and then either joined or returned to a team where a problem/pathology-focused discourse dominates. Often, mental health professionals find their initial enthusiasm wanes as time passes, and will revert to the comfortable 'default' position of older familiar practices. This paper looks at how to go about maintaining acquired solution focused (SF) skills and values while working with colleagues who are more focused on identifying and treating pathology.
Applying SFBT
As a mental health nurse, until very recently working in a crisis mental health service, I have discovered that at each stage of the daily routine there are opportunities...